Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "CROATIA Country BALKANS" .
ISTRIA (Region) CROATIA
Aethicus Hister (or Ister), a Roman writer of the fourth century, a native of
Istria according to his surname, or, according to Rabanus Maurus, of Scythia,
the author of a geographical work, called Aethici Cosmographia. We learn from
the preface that a measurement of the whole Roman world was ordered by Julius
Caesar to be made by the most able men, that this measurement was begun in the
consulship of Julius Caesar and M. Antonius, i. e. B. C. 44; that three Greeks
were appointed for the purpose, Zenodoxus, Theodotus, and Polyclitus; that Zenodoxus
measured all the eastern part, which occupied him twenty-one years, live months,
and nine days, on to the third consulship of Augustus and Crassus; that Theodotus
measured the northern part, which occupied him twenty-nine years, eight months,
and ten days, on to the tenth consulship of Augustus; and that Polyclitus measured
the southern part, which occupied him thirty-two years, one month, and ten days;
that thus the whole (Roman) world was gone over by the measurers within thirty-two
(?) years; and that a report of all it contained was laid before the senate. So
it stands in the edd.; but the numbers are evidently much corrupted: the contradictoriness
of Polyclitus's share taking more than 32 years, and the whole measurement being
made in less than (intra) 32 years is obvious.
It is to be observed that, in this introductory statement, no mention
is made of the western part (which in the work itself comes next to the eastern),
except in the Vatican MS., where the eastern part is given to Nicodomus, and the
western to Didymus.
A census of all the people in the Roman subjection was held under
Augustus (Suidas, s. v. Augoustos). By two late writers (Cassiodorus, Var. iii.
52; and Isidorus, Orig. v. 36.4), this numbering of the people is spoken of as
connected with the measurement of the land. This work in fact consists of two
separate pieces. The first begins with a short introduction, the substance of
which has been given, and then proceeds with an account of the measurement of
the Roman world under four heads, Orientalis, Occidentalis, Septentrionalis, Meridiana
pars. Then come series of lists of names, arranged under heads, Maria, Insulae,
Montes, Provinciae, Oppida, Flumina, and Gentes. These are hare lists, excepting
that the rivers have an account of their rise, course, and length annexed. This
is the end of the first part, the Expositio. The second part is called Alia totius
orbis Descriptio, and consists of four divisions: (1.) Asiae Provinciae situs
cum limitibus et populis suis; (2.) Europae situs, &c.; (3.) Africae situs, &c.;
(4.) Insulae Nostri Maris. This part, the Description, occurs with slight varia
tions in Orosins, i. 2. In Aethicus what looks like the original commencement,
Majores nostri. &c., 16 tacked on to the preceding part, the Expositio, by the
words Hanc quadripartitam totius terrae continentiam hi qui dimcnsi sunt. From
this it would appear that Aethicus borrowed it from Orosius.
The work abounds in errors. Sometimes the same name occurs
in different lists; as, for example, Cyprus and Rhodes both in the north and in
the east; Corsica both in the west and in the south; or a country is put as a
town, as Arabia; Noricum is put among the islands. Mistakes of this kind would
easily be made in copying lists, especially if in double columns. But from other
reasons and from quotations given by Dicuil, a writer of the 9th century, from
the Cosmographia, differing from the text as we have it, the whole appears to
be very corrupt. The whole is a very meagre production, but presents a few valuable
points. Many successful emendations have been made by Salmasius in his Exercitationes
Philologicae, and there is a very valuable essay on the whole subject by Ritschl.
The sources of the Cosmographia appear to have been the measurements
above described, other official lists and documents, and also, in all probability,
Agrippa's Commentarii, which are constantly referred to by Pliny (Hist. Nat. iii.
iv. v. vi.) as an authority, and his Chart of the World, which was founded on
his Commentarii (Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 2).
Cassiodorus (de instit. divin. 25) describes a cosmographical work
by Julius Honorius Crator in terms which suit exactly the work of Aethicus; and
Salmasius regards Julius Honorius as the real author of this work, to which opinion
Ritschl seems to lean, reading Ethnicus instead of Aethicus, and considering it
as a mere appellative. In some MSS. the appellatives Sophista and Philosophus
are found.
One of the oldest MSS., if not the oldest, is the Vatican one. This
is the only one which speaks of the west in the introduction. But it is carelessly
written: consulibus (e. g.) is several times put for consulatum. Suis is found
as a contraction (?) for suprascriptis. The introduction is very different in
this and in the other MSS.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
FAROS (Ancient city) CROATIA
Demetrius (Demetrios), a Greek of the island of Pharos in the Adriatic. He was in the service
of the Illyrians at the time that war first broke out between them and Rome, and
held Corcyra for the Illyrian queen Teuta; but treacherously surrendered it to
the Roman fleet, and became a guide and active ally to the consuls in all their
subsequent operations (Polyb. ii. 11). His services were rewarded, after the defeat
and [p. 966] submission of Teuta, with a great part of her dominions, though the
Romans seem never to have thoroughly trusted him (Polyb. l. c.; Appian, Illyr.
c. 8). He afterwards entered into alliance with Antigonus Doson, king of Macedonia,
and assisted him in the war against Cleomenes (Polyb. ii. 65, iii. 16). Thinking
that he had thus secured the powerful support of Macedonia, and that the Romans
were too much occupied with the Gallic wars, and the danger impending from Hannibal,
to punish his breach of faith, he ventured on many acts of piratical hostility.
The Romans, however, immediately sent the consul L. Aemilius Paullus over to Illyria
(B. C. 219), who quickly reduced all his strongholds, took Pharos itself, and
obliged Demetrius to fly for refuge to Philip, king of Macedonia (Polyb. iii.
16, 18, 19; Appian, Illyr. 8; Zonar. viii. 20). At the court of this prince he
spent the remainder of his life, and became his chief adviser. The Romans in vain
sent an embassy to the Macedonian king to demand his surrender (Liv. xxii. 33);
and it was at his instigation that Philip determined, after the battle of Thrasymene,
to conclude an alliance with Hannibal and make war upon the Romans (Polyb. v.
101, 105, 108; Justin. xxix. 2). Demetrius was a man of a daring character, but
presumptuous and deficient in judgment; and while supporting the cause of Philip
in Greece, he was led to engage in a rash attempt to take the fortress of Ithome
by a sudden assault, in which he himself perished (Polyb. iii. 19). Polybius ascribes
most of the violent and unjust proceedings of Philip in Greece to the advice and
influence of Demetrius, who appears to have been a man of much ability, but wholly
regardless of faith and justice (Polyb. vii. 11, 13, 14).
SISAK (Town) CROATIA
Geminus, Fufius. In B. C. 35, when Octavianus, after subduing the Pannonians, retired to Rome, he left Fufius Geminus, with a part of his army, behind in Pannonia. Soon after the departure of Octavianus, the Pannonians rose again; but Geminus succeeded in compelling them, by several battles, to remain quiet, although he had at first been driven by them from the town of Siscia. (Dion Cass. xlix. 36.) He seems to be the same person as the one whom Florus (iv. 12. § 8) calls Vibius. Whether he stood in any relation to C. Fufius Geminus, who was consul in A. D. 29, is unknown. (Tac. Ann. v. 1.)
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